For a few months now, I have been speaking with REALTORS® about providing electronic signatures as a member benefit. If enough members believe that this service would be valuable to them and their clients, we could explore, negotiate with a vendor and then provide this as a service to you. This service could be provided in much the same way the Arizona Association of REALTORS® (AAR) provides forms through zipLogix to REALTORS® statewide.
Photo Courtesy of DocuSign
Members working on short sale and foreclosure deals have expressed frustration that banks often do not accept e-signatures for these transactions. However, I ask that you consider the potential benefit of this service for “traditional” transactions today and going forward.
There are several electronic signature vendors that I have contacted. The one that most REALTORS® mention is DocuSign. There are many electronic signature companies, such as EchoSign, eOriginal, Authentisign and AlphaTrust to name a few, that the association could partner with in providing this member service. Here is a link to the DocuSign webpage for REALTORS®. By providing this link, AAR is not endorsing this vendor’s services, but the webpage will give you an idea of what this type of service could provide.
So my question to you is simply this…do you think that this would be a valuable service for AAR to provide to its members? Would you e-sig?
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Tom Farley Tom Farley is the CEO of the Arizona Association of REALTORS®. He is the lead political strategist for the association. Tom has run or been involved in several statewide and local campaigns on behalf of the REALTORS® on issues ranging from taxes to land use. He is a member or sits on the board of directors of several organizations, including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, Arizona Tax Research Association and the Public Affairs Professionals Association. To see more posts by this author, click here. |
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Tom, thanks for soliciting feedback from your members about eSignature as a potential member benefit. I hope your members take a moment to take a look at the REALTOR® Edition offered by DocuSign, the official and exclusive eSign provider in NAR’s Member Benefits® Program!
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or comments
Greetings,
I am a huge fan of docusign! With the current happenings with Short Sales perhaps the banks will be drive electronic signatures. I vote that you pursue making a deal!
I appreciate what the AAR does for us currently.
I absolutely LOVE DocuSign! In fact, my clients often say the love DocuSign, as well. Great product with many benefits.
Docusign is an amazing product. The only trouble is that there are still agents and lenders that are not familiar with it. If it was offered by AAR to it’s members, I think there would be a wider acceptance of the program by all. Clients love it, Agents love it… Seems like a win/win situation.
We love Docusign! It is an enormous welcome tool for all of our clients and for us as well! If you select someone I hope it is Docusign!
I currently use Docusign and love it, it is an outstanding product with great support and I definitely think this would bring a lot of value to the members.
Honestly could not say enough good things about it.
I’ve loved using DocuSign for several years now. This is one of the BEST member benefits I could imagine! From my experience with short sales and REOs most of them are open to the electronic signature. There is only one large bank that I am aware of who won’t accept it. Yes, please explore, negotiate and provide it!
Docusign is one of the best tools are there…it would be a GREAT benefit for Realtors.
Absolutely, Docusign would be a value! Pay for it now.
Tom, I would love to have esignature as a member benefit. I am using Docusign, paying about $150 per year. It would be a valuable benefit, much more useful than the Cromford Report that ARMLS give.
Great idea!
I have used DocuSign for most of 2 yrs now and love it. I have had only 1 REO that would not accept it.
Yes please!!!! This would be great because then several agents and brokers who do not realize it is legal now would then hopefully understand!
Hi All!
Wow – thanks for sharing your comments and thoughts about DocuSign! Today’s a great day for eCommerce – the FHA released a Mortgagee Letter clarifying its position on eSignature.
For more information and a link to the Mortgagee Letter, please see the link below:
http://www.docusign.com/blog/2010/04/08/federal-housing-administration-to-accept-docusign-for-real-estate-contracts/
Our entire office is in favor of AAR pursuing docusign as a member benefit! It would be extremely valuable for everyone! Thank you for such a wonderful suggestion. We sincerely hope it will become a reality.
From HUD today. Accepting digital signatures!
http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2010/HUDNo.10-075
What a wonderful benefit! Yes, I would use it.
What a wonderful member benefit! Please and thank you!
Because of the majority of FHA lenders and short sale banks not accepting these sigs, it was hard to promote it, but with the recent announcement of this passing in Congress, making these legal signatures, I think it would be a great member benefit. But if and when it does become a member benefit, we need to promote it so the agents actually know about it!
I have been using Docusign for a couple years now. Great product and we are hoping that the California Association of Realtor will provide this as a member benefit.
From what I understand is that Docusign does not have a tiered pricing structure for membership. For example – pricing for 1000 members vs 2000 members. This could be a problem in negotiations.
If my CAR dues went up a little for a benefit like this I would not mind at all.
I would love to see docusign become a member benefit. It is a useful tool and although already affordable as can be it would be nice to have access through AAR fees.
Put simply, DocuSign rocks my world. And my client’s world. *Anything* AAR can do to promote it (and help brokers understand it) would be appreciated.
AAR is always looking for tools to help the members, and I think this would be a great one to add to their toolbox.
Absolutely this would be a great service for AAR members. I’m sure all of us have lost transactions because we are waiting for signatures.
So far, I’ve only had one bank balk at accepting e-sigs (it was my buyer’s credit union), but when I supplied the envelope information and a link to DocuSign’s website, they were satisfied and did approve it. I’ve used it with both short sales and bank-owned properties. Asset managers would not sign that way, but accepted e-sigs from the buyers.
This is definately something our office, National Realty of Prescott ,would use.